Kennebunk Beach Surf Forecast and Surf Report

Alright folks, Rusty here. Let's be straight with you – this is a tough one for our local stretch at Kennebunk Beach. The next 16 days are looking pretty bleak for any decent paddle surfing. You're looking at a solid blank run from now all the way through to the end of the month, with the only real flicker of something happening right at the very end of the forecast period.

The main issue is the swell direction. We're getting hammered with windswell out of the south and southeast, which is a terrible direction for this spot. It's a sheltered beach, and that southerly fetch just doesn't wrap in properly. The water is a bit colder than normal for this time of year, coming in at 61° – about 3° off the usual, so you'll feel that nip.

From Monday the 20th right through to the end of July, all we're seeing is weak, short-period junk. The combined energy of all swells directed here is mostly in the low double digits or even single digits (25), which tells you there's just no power in the water. The winds are nearly always cross-onshore, chopping it up and making it a messy, frustrating paddle. Nothing is breaking cleanly, and the wave heights are bouncing between a pathetic 2 ft and 5 ft, none of which is worth the drive. The only thing that changes is the wind direction – and it's never in our favour for long.

There is a tiny glimmer, but it's a long way off. On the morning of Wednesday the 29th of July, we finally get a bit of glassy conditions with a light SSW wind. The swell is still small at 3 ft, and the energy is moderate (133), but it's glassy. It's surfable, but just barely. That's the single best shot in the whole 16 days, and it's a marginal one.

The rest of the first week of August is more of the same: small, weak, and sloppy. The combined energy drops back into the double digits (99, 97, 32), and the winds come back onshore. There's a brief moment of cleaner conditions on the 31st July with a cross-offshore breeze, but the swell is so tiny (2 ft) it's barely a ripple.

Honestly, for a surfer's heart, this is a write-off. The setup is so poor for paddle surfing, with the strong onshore winds and weak, short-period swell, that this beach might actually be more interesting for a kite surfer than anyone with a paddleboard. The outlook is about as grim as it gets. For now, I'd say save the petrol.

Rusty.

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